Type of retina practices

[newby000]

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I figured there are couple of different retina practice opportunities 1-acedemia, 2- solo retina, 3- large group retina 4- health care base/hospital based, 5- retina in a multi-specialty ophtho practice, 6- retina trained comprehensive , any more? which are the most sought after and why? I was hoping people can shed light to what the pros and cons of each set ups are?
for instance academia may give you a lot of flexibility in regards to research, allow you participate in residency training but may be lacking in efficiency or income compared to others, or does it?. Any thoughts on the others?
Thank you

 

[mjohnsonets]

Here is some feedback based on docs that I have worked with on group retina and multi-specialty retina (these are commonly noted points to me but are not representative of every single practice of these types):

Large group retina has the biggest benefit of being a purely retina focused practice with similar shared needs amongst the physicians practicing there. This can make it easier to buy new equipment more frequently or draw more clinical trial research into the practice. Typically their processes will be worked out and be very efficient to handle a volume of patients higher than most practices. These practices will also tend to keep overhead down compared to multi-specialty practices. Here you will be expected to do outreach to your referral network and continue building upon the current referral network of the practice. In a retina only group, you will likely see more challenging cases that are referred to you as well. In many cases, a retina only group requires you to cover multiple clinic locations, some of which may be satellites that are 30+ min away.

For retina in a multi-specialty group, I will assume you are not the only retina surgeon in the group as this is becoming less common and I imagine the trend will continue.

These practices may not have as defined processes for retina patients if they don't have a long history with retina surgeons but ones that do I imagine you will find as efficient as retina only groups. Here you may not have the leverage in the practice to purchase equipment as frequently in retina only group as there will be less use amongst the whole practice. The huge pro of being a retina doc in a multi-specialty group is the large built-in referral network - in groups large enough this is typically enough to build your entire practice around. Overhead will be higher here in most cases. Cases in these practices will typically be easier. These groups also typically have less commuting/satelliting since internal referrals come to you. These practices can garner clinical trials too. Here there may be more call depending on how many retina docs are in the practice.

For solo retina docs, I don't have as much hold on because they establish their own practices instead of being recruited. I can note from some I've worked with on part-time positions they tend to satellite more than other types of practices.

For retina trained comprehensive, I know only two instances of a surgical retina doc doing comprehensive but know many instances of medical retina trained docs doing comprehensive. This is very common in saturated markets given there may be more retina groups drawing referrals and there not being enough referrals in a comprehensive group to keep a retina doc busy with just retina patients.

 

[docdoc2012]

Why is there such a large discrepancy between academic retina and private practice retina salaries? It seems private people are taking home upwards of 500k at the least with 45- 50 pts a day...but academic people without the fancy titles are around 250k
Does this sound about right?

 

[mjohnsonets]

Why is there such a large discrepancy between academic retina and private practice retina salaries? It seems private people are taking home upwards of 500k at the least with 45- 50 pts a day...but academic people without the fancy titles are around 250k
Does this sound about right?

I do work with 2 academic practices but am by no means an expert on academic practice since I work more with private practices and hospitals so I tread lightly in my answers here. Also, I would suspect that compensation would be very dependent on the institution and with private practices, the practices themselves can somewhat control overhead. While I haven't been into the numbers on an academic practice, I would imagine there is significantly more overhead in an academic practice.

It can depend on the type of academic practice. Some are much more research or teaching-focused whereas some can be much more clinically and surgically focused (UAB and Mason Eye Institute are good examples of more clinical and surgical practices).

 

[hurdlepup]

Why is there such a large discrepancy between academic retina and private practice retina salaries? It seems private people are taking home upwards of 500k at the least with 45- 50 pts a day...but academic people without the fancy titles are around 250k
Does this sound about right?

No too low.


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[docdoc2012]

No too low.


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Details per favor?

 

[hurdlepup]

Details per favor?

Double both. Private practice may take a few years to get to that though depending on path to partnership.


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[Slide]

The range for academic centers vary. Usually the more prestigious or if I’m a highly desirably city, the less the offer. My starting salary in academics was much more than the numbers you listed.

Some of the reasons for low starting salaries at some academic centers other than what was stated above is that your clinical load and payer mix may not be as busy/wealthy as private practice. Also, academic centers have more overhead to pay for various things private practices don’t have to pay for, like security, administration, and upkeep.